RECRUITMENT-OFFICE PROTEST
If only he'd put women's underwear on his head instead ...

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/this_just_in/documents/03885837..asp

BY CAMILLE DODERO

It was a skinny pair of stereo wires that got 21-year-old Joe
Previtera charged with two felonies. A week ago on Wednesday, the
Boston College student poked his head through a gauzy shawl, donned a
black pointy hood, and ascended a milk crate positioned to the right
of the Armed Forces Recruitment Center's Tremont Street entrance. He
extended his arms like a tired scarecrow; stereo wires dangled from
his fingers onto the ground below. Without those wires, the Westwood
native could have been mistaken for an eyeless Klansman dipped in
black, or maybe even the Wicked Witch of the West swallowed by her hat
shorn of its brim. But those snaky cords made the costume's import
clear: Previtera was a dead ringer for one of Abu Ghraib's Iraqi
prisoners — specifically, the faceless man who'd allegedly been forced
to balance on a cardboard box lest he be electrocuted.

"We found that street theater can be more effective in conveying a
message than a flier," Previtera says nearly a week later, explaining
why he'd dressed up like the Abu Ghraib prisoner. "We picked the
location because we wanted to make people think about what they might
be called or forced to do if they enlist in the military."

But the demonstration didn't go as planned. Previtera — along with
four friends who'd come out to shoot photos and protect the blinded
activist in case, as fellow BC student Nick Fuller-Googins put it,
"some hyper-nationalist character came up and punched him in the
stomach" — figured the cops would warn him before they tossed him in
the clink. But they didn't. First, Previtera's friends say, someone
came out of the recruitment office and told him to get down; when
Previtera didn't, the person went inside. (No one from the Armed
Forces Recruitment Center could be reached for comment.) Soon after,
the cops appeared and watched the spectacle from their cruisers;
shortly thereafter, the Boston Police bomb squad rolled up. Less than
90 minutes after the protest began, the police began taping off the
area around him, and when Previtera stepped down, they took him into
custody for "disturbing the peace." But Previtera had remained silent
the entire time. "I was really trying to play the role as accurately
as possible," he says. "So I was not speaking with anyone, just trying
to stay there as still as possible." Any disturbance came from the
crowd of gawking spectators that, witnesses say, assembled once the
policeman showed.

At the precinct, Previtera discovered that in addition to the initial
misdemeanor, he'd been charged with two felonies: "false report of
location of explosives" and a "hoax device."

"This was supposed to be more symbolic than anything," says Previtera,
who never imagined they'd nab him for a false bomb threat. "I never
wanted to scare anyone into thinking I had a bomb. I just wanted to
make people think about international affairs." He adds, "I never
uttered the word bomb or explosive."

Previtera's friend Soula was surprised too. But she realizes this kind
of escalated police response has sadly become the norm for activists.
"In the world and time that we are living right now — most people will
say the post-9/11 world — when you go out to some demonstration or in
any way display your dissent for anything related to the government or
the status quo, you're putting yourself at risk," she says. And the
same day of Previtera's protest, a report in the Boston Globe warning
of possible terrorist threats read: "Officials were urged to take note
of people dressed in bulky jackets in warm weather ... or trailing
electrical wires."

So if Previtera didn't mention a bomb, what exactly constitutes a bomb
threat? "It can be implied, with fingers and wires — especially in a
heightened state of alert, as we are," says Officer Michael McCarthy,
Boston Police Department spokesman. And McCarthy thinks this is common
knowledge, even if the wires are accessories to a costume. "Mr.
Previtera should know better. He's a young adult educated at Boston
College from a wealthy suburb. I'm sure he knows wires attached to his
fingers, running to a milk crate, would arouse suspicion outside a
military recruiters' office [when he's] dressed in prisoner's garb. If
he has any questions as to why people think he may've had a bomb, then
he needs to maybe go back to Boston College to brush up on his public
policy. Or at least common sense, but they can't really teach that
there."
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Scientology tries to disrupt terrorist attacks relief efforts:
http://www.cosvm.org/
"Bush is doing what's necessary to keep the military in top form." --
David Wilson
"Top form for an S&M porno." == Jingo